Life Goes On
by jellomagmortar-fic
Summary: After the events of the game. Lucas and company adapt to life after the last needle was pulled. Lucas, Claus, Duster, Kumatora, Flint, and Boney all live together, and are all adjusting.
1. Waves

"Er... i dunno, luc."

It has been a few weeks since Lucas pulled the final needle in New Pork City. The journey was rough, climbing mountains, fighting chimeras, but it was worth it. Lucas was able to make a very impactful wish while channeling his heart and soul into the dragon. That wish? Bring everything back to normal, bring back his beloved twin brother. Though... there was a slight catch. Claus still possessed the cybernetic enhancements installed within him by the pigmasks. This made life a bit difficult for the young redhead, having constant reminders of a difficult pastime. Though, Lucas of course loved him all the same, and was estatic to be able to spend time together again after being separated for so long. Sometimes a bit too enthusiastic.

"Come on, Claus! When we were little, you were the one poking fun at me for being afraid of the water."

Living near the ocean had its benefits. Fishing, boat travel, and of course swimming. A fun activity, perfect for the hot summer afternoon currently taking place. Though sometimes technology and water just don't quite mix.

Claus hesitantly approached the coast, almost jumping back then the tide extended towards his legs. He wasn't exactly sure if he was waterproof or not, considering that he was basically braindead during his time as the masked man.

"Lucas? I don't actually know if it's safe for me to go into the water." Claus glanced over at his twin. Lucas seemed to have gained a concerned face at his previous statement. "But Claus, it's been nearly 2 weeks since the last needle was pulled! Have you not taken a bath since then? There's no way you haven't... right?"

Lucas now had a pensive frown, internally musing over his poor brother. Has he been afraid this whole time? If he had a problem, why didn't he just tell him? Lucas' loved ones were immensely important to him. He would do anything to help them, even if it meant neglecting himself.

Lucas left the water and started to approach his twin. Claus averted his eyes away from the blonde, seemingly guilty because of Lucas' expression.

"Sorry little bro. I guess it's just been a little hard adjusting to the whole electricity thing. Don't worry bout' me so much, alright? You went through a lot too."

Those last words made Lucas go into a bit of thought. Claus wasn't around for three years.. and Lucas was just now realizing that the two had no idea what the other had been through during their time apart. He was worried about his brother, though he knew that Claus was just as worried about him, even if he didn't express it. Lucas was just afraid to ask about things, in the event that Claus somehow remembered something that gave him an anxiety attack. It made things a bit difficult. Not being able to understand his brother, and not being able to help him to the best of his ability because of that. Knowing Claus though, he was probably just as curious and worried about how Lucas faired during their time separated.

Despite the twinge of anxiety, Lucas gained the courage to ask a little bit about Claus' situation. He wanted to be able to make his twin feel better, to make him okay again.

"Hey Claus? Could I ask you something? I mean.. you don't have to answer if you feel uncomfortable, I just want to be able to help you but I don't know anything about what really happened and-"

Lucas was cut off by a hug from his brother. Claus made a small smile in his direction, and ruffled the blondes hair a bit.

"Its ok, Luc. I understand that you want to help me, but I'm not the only one who went through some stuff during those three years. So I'll make a deal with ya. I talk about me, you talk about you. I know you wanna help everyone else but I can tell things have been difficult for you too. So, pinky promise me that you will hold your end of the deal?" Claus extended a artificial pinky finger towards the other. He cocked a smile towards Lucas, hoping he will leave some time for himself to improve his emotional fatigue.

"O-ok. But... just don't anyone what i tell you about. Double pinky promise?" Lucas held out his own digit and locked it with his brothers.

"Double pinky promise." The two were interrupted by some noisy barking, and sporadic footsteps towards the shore. Sure enough, the two revealed to have been making all of the ruckus were everyones favorite brown mutt and pink haired teen.

"Heya, slowpokes! What's taking you so long to jump in?" Kumatora ran up to the boys and roughly ruffled through Lucas' hair. Her eyebrows were bent, signaling her energy and excitement to hang around with the two.

"Uh... hold on Kuma. I think I want to show Clausy something. Er, someone I mean." Lucas was instantly drawn to his brothers face, scrunching with embarrassment at the use of his endearing nickname. "O-oh! Sorry Claus! I didn't mean to-"

Claus had a mischievous smirk on his face. He looked Lucas dead in the eyes. "That's fine... 'Luckey-poo'."

Lucas immediately blushed. That's the nickname Hinawa had used for him as a very young child. He hadn't heard it in years, and was astonished that Claus would remember something like that. "C-Claus! Nobody was supposed to know about that..."

Kumatora burst out laughing. ,"Hah! Can you boys stop teasing each other for three seconds? Its been years, and as soon as you reunite you act like little punks! Well, I don't know if Lucas can really even *be* a punk, but you know what I mean."

"Yeah, sorry Lucas, I couldn't resist." Claus turned to his brother. "Though anyway, what did you want to show me?"

Lucas started beaming. "Ah, that's right! Well, we will have to walk a bit to get there, but I think it will worth it. Especially for you, Claus!"

The four took a moment to look at the tide swaying closer to the house. Eventually, it was decided that all of them, and Duster, would leave in the morning. For Claus' first visit to Saturn Valley.


	2. Rise and shine

"Get up already, we gotta go today!"

Lucas was very adamant about bringing his brother Claus to Saturn Valley. Dr Andonauts was staying there for the time being, and he thinks that talking with him would be beneficial for his twin. Currently, the blonde boy is jumping around Dusters bed, trying to get him and Boney up and awake for the day. Normally Boney would agree with Lucas and willingly get up to play, but there was something the pup just loved about snuggling with others in the morning.

"Ok, alright, settle down buddy. I'll get up now." Duster got up out of the bed with a hop, and made sure to balance most of his weight on his good leg. Lucas beamed, seeing as he now successfully got everyone in the house up and at it. Kumatora was expectedly annoyed by the fact that Lucas suddenly burst into her room though, going 'Hey, who said you could just barge in here?'

Boney was next to rise, and stretched out his legs once he jumped into the floor. With a small wag of his tail, he went over to Lucas for a good morning pet/lick. The mutt followed Lucas and Duster into the kitchen to get some well deserved breakfast, or in Dusters case, a steaming mug of coffee. He needed the caffeine kick as much as the next guy, especially with the added burden of having to walk around with a limp.

The group made their way to the table where Kumatora was making some pancakes, and Flint was enjoying his own coffee. Claus was sitting nearby, and Boney made sure to collect his owed morning pets from the other twin as well. Duster and Lucas opted to sit with Flint at the kitchen table.

"Morning, Dad! Are you going to the valley with us today?" Lucas questioned, as Flint took another sip of his java. Flint turned towards his son, and tilted his brown hat a bit.

"Fraid' not. I'm gonna help Lighter with the logs today for the help he gave us settin' up the house. Normally Fuel would help em' but he's out sick."

Lucas seemed a bit let down, but expected this kind of response. Back before Claus was back, his dad never had time to spend with him. He was always out doing things, and sometimes wouldn't come back until the dead of the night. Most of the time Lucas suspected that he was out looking for his twin in the mountains.

Kumatora sensed Lucas' disappointment, and perked up a bit. "Hey, don't worry man. We'll get to tell him all about it when we get back, how does that sound?" She flipped the current pancake she was working on, groaning when she realized she burnt it, once again.

Claus walked over and sat at the table with the rest of the group. "Yeah, I'm sure it will be fun. Though, why you wanna bring me there anyway? Is there something so extraordinary about the Mr Saturns I didn't already know about?" Claus' comment got a small chuckle out of the blonde haired boy. "Nope, I want to introduce you to Mr Andonauts. I think he might be able to help a bit with your water problem. Then maybe we can borrow the hot springs there, because boy, do you need a bath!"

Claus smirked at his brother. "Well, it's not like I stink or anything. Instead of sweating, I have a fan installed somewhere in here." Thinking harder about this, Claus started feeling a bit uneasy and decided to change the subject. "Anyway, how's breakfast going Kuma?"

Kumatora slid a plate of pancakes in front of the redhead. "How's that for an answer?" She spun around, returning with a bottle of maple syrup. Abbot likes to make it from the trees in the forest, and shared some of his bottles with everyone as a sort of "welcome home and thanks for saving the world" gift.

Claus was starving, and was excited to dig in. "Hey, thanks." He took a test bite, and scrunched a bit at the undersides taste. "They're slightly less burnt this time. Huh, i think she's getting a bit better."

Kumatora flashed a playful glare at Claus, and started handing out platters to the rest of the table. She also leaned down and put a scoop of kibble in Boney's doggie dish. Yum, chicken flavor.

Duster eyed the counter for something and started fidgeting with his fork. Kumatora seemed to notice, as she always does (she likes to tease people) and turned over towards him. "Watcha need, Dust-Man?" She watched him ponder for a moment before he asked. "Uh, could I have the coffee pot?"

Flint snorted and eyed Duster. "Ain't that gonna be your 3rd cup of coffee? Someone likes their beans." Lucas reached over for a bit more syrup. "He likes cheese too I think." He looked at Duster afterwards, almost as a way of asking for confirmation.

"Yeah, I do, silly. That's kinda weird to suddenly bring up though?" Kumatora laughed at Duster for a moment before exclaiming that,"He's one to talk about what's weird, hah!" Duster flusteredly poured himself another cup of coffee, choosing to ignore his pink haired friend.

The boys got up and put their plates in the sink, thanking Kumatora for breakfast. Lucas stared directly at Duster and Kumatora. "Come on, we gotta go! Duster can take his coffee with him!" Kumatora smirked and eyed the excited adolescent. "Hey, lemme clean up breakfast first, will ya? Then we will head out. Sound good?" Lucas smiled at Claus and the two of them nodded at each other. They walked into the other room and sat down for a moment while waiting for the adults to tidy the dining room.

Lucas thought about the short trip they were about to go on. He was excited that he could potentially finally help out Claus with one of his many issues, but he kicked himself for neglecting to think of something important. Once they got there, did Claus even want to talk to Dr Andonauts? He recalled that he found him hiding in a trash can at the chimera lab. Would that somehow bring up any bad memories?

The blonde turned over to his twin and eyed him for a moment. Almost on queue with his own thoughts, Claus looked a bit concerned about something. This wasn't very surprising considering they were twin brothers who both happened to be psi users, but it still bothered Lucas a bit.

"Hey Claus? Do you think talking to the doctor would bother you at all? I mean, I don't want you to have to think about anything you would rather avoid." Claus flashed a dismissive smile towards Lucas, and this worried him a bit. He hoped Claus wasn't hiding his own feelings to make not worry him again. Lucas worried about a lot of things, worrying about his brother on top of that wasn't going to hurt him. Especially when him hiding his feelings just made him even more anxious.

"Its fine, bro. I think its a good idea to do something like this. I mean, who else is going to be able to answer all of the questions I have?" Lucas nodded, and his brother continued. "I mean, he sounds vaguely familiar to me. Dr Andonauts, I mean. I feel like I have heard of someone like that before. Though, the only people who operated on me were the pigmasks, so-" Claus paused midway through his sentence, and frowned a bit. He seemed to be staring off at something that wasn't there, or almost like he was seeing right through Lucas. This garnered enough concern from his brother, and Claus' pondering was interrupted by his hand being squished by Lucas.

"Are you sure, Claus? I w-wouldn't want to make you think about-" The redhead in question cut his twin off from his nervous rambling. "I'm fine, Lucas. I just said so. Pinky promise."

Lucas looked back over at Claus with a bit less concern, and smiled at him. "Okay, pinky promise." The two chatted a bit more for a while before the others eventually finished with the cleanup. Duster came waddling in, leaning on the doorframe. "Hey, um, I think we're all ready to head out. You all set?" Lucas glanced over at his twin for a moment, and smiled back at Duster. "Yeah, I think we're ready." Boney ran into the room and barked, almost as a warning of Kumatora charging into the doorframe in a hurry. Duster moved out of the way just in time, and Kumatora seemed completely unaware of the fact that she almost trampled over the poor man. She dramatically sparked a bit of flames on her fingertip, and pointed it into the air. "I'm ready, lets go explore some places!" Even if it had only been a few weeks since living a more calm domestic life in the country, Kumatora was pumped to be able to get back out there again. After going on a journey like that, you can't just go right back to normal afterwards without being bored out of your mind!

So everyone put their shoes on (sans Boney), said their farewells to Flint, and headed out the door. The air was clean, and there were a few clouds in the sky, though other than that it was completely sunny. The sunflowers stirred a bit in the breeze, and the path to the village had a few leaves covering it. The group strolled along, mentally preparing themselves for the trip to Saturn Valley.


End file.
